Policy recommendations to the Obama administration, conflict with Iran and much more.
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FAS Roundup: November 13, 2012
Policy recommendations to the Obama administration, conflict with Iran and much more.
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FAS Symposium on Catastrophic Threats and Awards Ceremony
Only three
days after the national election, FAS hosted a day-long symposium that
featured distinguished speakers and recommendations to the Obama
administration on how best to respond to catastrophic threats to
national security at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
The memo recommendations can be found here (PDF).
FAS also
hosted the 2012 Awards Ceremony luncheon recognizing outstanding
individuals who have made a distinctive contribution to national
security. Dr. John Ahearne was honored with the 2012 Richard L. Garwin Award, Dr. Sidney Drell received the 2012 Public Service Award, and Dr. Rosa Ovshinsky accepted the 2012 Hans Bethe Award on behalf of the late Mr. Stanford Ovshinsky.
Dr. Drell shared the honor of the Public Service Award with Dr. Henry
Kissinger, Senator Sam Nunn, Dr. William J. Perry, and Mr. George P.
Shultz.
For more information on the award winners and to view Senator Nunn's acceptance video, click here.
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From the Blogs
Document Collector Charged Under Espionage Statute:
James F. Hitselberger, a Navy contract linguist who served in Bahrain,
has been charged under an Espionage Act statute. However, he is not
suspected of espionage. Mr. Hitselberger is a collector of rare
documents, and was found to have contributed a classified document to
the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. These are only a few of
the “unusual features” of this case.
Human Nature:
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Dr. Y has been volunteering in New York
City at one of the shelters for those evacuated from their homes. As a
result of this experience, in a new post on the ScienceWonk Blog, he
examines how humans choose to see and interact with the world in which
we live.
Natural Gas in the US Economy, and More from CRS:
Secrecy News has obtained recently released CRS reports on topics such
as natural gas in the economy, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, federal government involvement in Hurricane Sandy and the electoral college.
Pentagon Inspector General to Probe Overclassification:
The Department of Defense will review its classification practices as
required by law under the 2010 Reducing Over-Classification Act. The new
Inspector General review has the potential to thicken and enrich the
oversight of national security classification policy. The IG staff will
have broad access to whatever classified Department information they
require to perform their statutorily-mandated review. Moreover, they
typically have an investigative orientation that goes beyond routine
monitoring.
Some Comments on the “Withdrawal” of a CRS Report: The
Congressional Research Service withdrew a report on reduced tax rates
and increased economic growth. However, CRS never posted the report for
public viewing. The withdrawal gained recognition only from an article
written by the New York Times and postings of the report on
other websites. This raises larger questions about public disclosure of
controversial CRS reports.
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Publication
With his
reelection, President Obama will continue to hear from Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a chorus of critics at home that he has
far less time to convince Iran to cooperate with the International
Atomic Energy Association (IAEA). Mark Jansson, Director of Special
Projects at FAS, writes in a post on Lobelog (an initiative of
IPS News Agency) that an important step for the Obama administration
before it starts grasping for diplomatic straws is to refresh the
framing of the issue and think longer term.
Read the post here.
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